


Candles and curly fries

by Aethelthryn



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings, Post-Season 4, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 05:40:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3345623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aethelthryn/pseuds/Aethelthryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles hated Valentine's Day. As usual, he planned to spend his night playing video games and eating chocolates.<br/>Well, until a certain werewolf asked him for help in his research.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Candles and curly fries

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!  
> So, this is my second fic for the Sterek fandom and it takes place on Valentine's Day. I hope you'll enjoy it.  
> For those who are worried about the presence of Malia or Braeden, they are just mentioned like two times in a discussion. And the story takes place a year after season 4. 
> 
> This story is unbeta'd and English is not my mother tongue. I tried to be very careful while correcting it, but if you see any mistake or typo feel free to point it out.

Stiles didn't like Valentine's Day. It was just a stupid commercial holiday created by the chocolate and cards factories and... Okay, who was he kidding? He was just bitter because he never had the chance to celebrate it with anyone, and this year was no exception.

He was alone, sulking in his room, while everyone had a date : Scott and Kira, Lydia and Parrish, his father and Melissa... Even Malia had been invited by one of Liam's classmates! God, he missed the old days, when Scott would join him to play video games and eat a ton of heart-shaped chocolates. 

Lydia and Kira had offered him a box of those at school, like the good friends they were, before talking about their plans for the night. Now the box was on his bed beside him, almost empty, and he was aggressivly pressing the keys of his computer trying to kill his opponent.

He had almost succeeded when his cellphone started to ring. A second of inatention was enough to lead him to his loss. He glared at the words "game over" on the screen before he grabbed the phone on his nightstand. 

"Fuck! It better be important!" 

It was a text from Derek. Stiles was tempted to ignore it and just carry on with his plans. He clicked for a new party on his game, waiting for it to load, but his eyes were fixed on his phone's screen. It didn't take more than a minute before he opened the text.

_Need your help for research. Bring your laptop._

No 'please', no question mark. It wasn't really surprising coming from Derek but it didn't stop the grunt that escaped Stiles's mouth. He tossed his phone on the bed and resumed his gaming. After all, he had been able to avoid almost every one-on-one meeting with the werewolf in about a year. He wasn't about to break his routine for a text.

*

He gave up after the fifth "game over" and closed the laptop's lid with force. It was overly frustrating but he knew he wouldn't be able to focus on anything that night. So he picked the hoodie on his desk chair, pocketed his wallet and keys, and shoot a message to Derek.

_I'll be there in 15._

It was pathetic that he couldn't say no to Derek. He used to do it all the time though, back when the werewolf was a complete asshole. Well, he was still kind of an asshole, sometimes, especially with Stiles. But he had changed after his trip with Cora in South America. More so after what had happened in Mexico. And Stiles had noticed.

He shook his head and took his computer, as he had been asked. After he had turned all the lights off and locked the front door, he hoped into his car.

*

He was glad to finally enter the warehouse district, where he didn't have to see any hand-holding couple or anything resembling a giant illuminated red heart. 

He parked his car in front of Derek's building and slid his bag over his shoulder. He took a quick look at the penthouse window but didn't see any light. Weird. Stiles checked his phone but there was no new text or missed call. He get out of his Jeep and quickly entered the hall, his footsteps echoing in the empty building. 

He stopped at the elevator and punched the call button. The doors didn't opened and there wasn't any noise.

"Really?!" 

After a few more tries, he resigned himself to take the stairs and cursed Derek in his mind. He used his phone as a flashlight because, _of course_ , the stairwell was totally dark. 

"It better be a life or death situation, or I swear I will kill him..." Stiles mumbled once he reached the last floor. 

He didn't bother knocking and opened the large door. Derek was a werewolf after all, he certainly heard him arrive a while ago, when Stiles was pestering against his bad luck. He let himself in and closed the door behind him.

The first thing he noticed was the softened light created by several candles. There were at least a dozen candles scattered all over the loft. The second thing that caught his eyes was the food on the coffee table : a pepperoni pizza and curly fries. His two favorite meals.

"What the..." His brain short-circuited. Did Derek use a false pretext to invite him on a date? He didn't want to imagine anything but his heart was already beating faster and he was feeling light-headed. He took a few steps toward the couch and tentatively call for Derek. His voice was low and strangled. "Are you here?"

He was startled by Derek's voice coming from the hole in the wall. "Coming!" The werewolf was approaching him with a bottle of water in his right hand and a soda in the other. He offered the latter to Stiles and sat on the couch without a word.

He was wearing a tight gray henley and equally tight dark jeans that didn't let anything to the imagination.

"Huh..." Stiles knew he shouldn't say anything, but his brain to mouth filter wasn't really working at the moment, when he was in the middle of a somewhat romantic setting with Derek Hale. "You could have asked you know? I would have said yes."

Derek's eyebrows spoke for him before he opened his mouth. "What are you talking about? You already accepted to come here."

"I mean... You could have said it was a date..." He regretted his word as soon as he saw the shocked expression on Derek's face. He felt the blood rush to his cheeks and prayed to be swallowed by the floor. 

"It's... it's not a date..." Derek stuttered. "Why would you think that?"

"The candles, my favorite food... And the fact that it's fucking Valentine's Day!" Stiles shouted, flustered by his own stupidity. Of course Derek wouldn't ask him to be his Valentine! "I'm a fucking idiot..."

"No!" Derek exclaimed, standing from the couch. "I'm sorry I misled you... I had no idea today was Valentine's Day. The food was to thank you for helping me, and the candles are here because there's a power outage in the building."

That explained the lack of light and the elevator.

The silence stretched out between them. Stiles was paralyzed as he replayed their conversation in his mind. He'd just told Derek Hale that he would have said yes to a date with him... He hadn't waited for an explanation, he had just blurted that he was interested by him. Not in those words, but it seemed pretty clear to him.

"I..." He tried to speak but the words were stuck in his throat. He put his can of soda on the table and turned toward the entrance. "You know what... I think I'll just leave and never come back."

He nearly tripped on his way to the door but he didn't care. He couldn't be more embarrassed than that. 

He was about to slide the door open when a hand closed on his wrist. He froze in his tracks and he was pretty sure his heart missed a beat. He stared at the floor and gritted his teeth. Why would Derek not let him go? Did he want to humiliate him more than he already was?

"You don't have to leave..." Stiles couldn't remember Derek using a soft voice while talking to him and it sent chills down his spine. He raised his head and looked into Derek's eyes for a second. The werewolf seemed queasy. "We will never speak about that again if it's what you want, but I really need your help..."

Stiles looked between Derek and the door, weighting his options. He finally took a step back in the loft and Derek let go of his wrist. "Okay, but only because there's a plate of curly fries!" 

Stiles counted his tentative to laugh it off as a win when he heard Derek snicker. And he would never admit that it was the cause of the flutter in his chest.

They both took a seat on the couch, the furthest from each other they could possibly be. They ate in silence, Stiles being careful to avoid any physical contact with the werewolf when he picked his food. 

*

Derek cleared his throat when Stiles put his finished can on the table, next to the empty pizza box. "So, I need you to help me find a supernatural creature."

"What kind? Is it in Beacon Hills? Is it dangerous?" Apparently his usual stream of speech was back, he tought.

"I don't know yet," Derek eplained. "I heard some rumors from several towns north from here and it seems to get closer... The only thing I know is that witnesses talked about a smell of ether after they encountered it. I thought maybe you could take a look into the Bestiary..."

"Don't you have a copy?" Stiles inquired.

"Only a hard copy, it would be easier with your computer. You know, using keywords instead of reading all the book."

"Welcome in the 21th century! You finally understand the importance of a computer!" Stiles joked.

"Shut up..." the werewolf mumbled. It seemed like they came back to their usual way of speaking to each other.

Derek stood from his place while Stiles placed his computer on his lap. The table was quicly cleared and Derek brought a few books from the bedroom part of the loft and a new can of soda for Stiles. 

They spent a good hour searching and comparing their results. There was a suprisingly large amount of creatures with an ether scent and Stiles hoped that one was of the good kind. 

*

"Stiles?" 

Derek's voice brought him back to reality and he realized he had been staring at one of the candles, deep in his toughts. He also noticed for the first time since he entered the loft that the candles were all fake. 

"Why do you have so many DEL candles?" Again with the no brain to mouth filter. Sometimes he really hated his inability to stop words from tumbling down out of his mouth. Especially when he saw the frown on Derek's face. "Sorry, stupid question, just ignore me..."

"They were Laura's..." the other man whispered. Stiles held his breath and looked at Derek. He was staring into space, his mind lost elsewhere. "She had a lot of candles before, a entire collection. I never understood her obsession." He chuckled, as if remembering a old conversation. "But after..." He paused a second to clear his throat. "After the fire, she didn't want to be close to a single candle, and she found that instead. She bought one for each member of our family that died in the house..." 

"I'm sorry Derek. I shouldn't have asked," Stiles apologized, dropping his computer on the coffee table before briefly squeezing Derek's arm.

"You don't need to apologize. If I hadn't wanted to answer, I wouldn't have."

They went back at their task in silence after that. 

*

"Can I ask you a question?" 

Derek was the one to break the silence. 

"It's only fair." 

"Were you serious when you said you would have agreed to a date with me?" 

Stiles groaned and hid his face in his hands. "You said we wouldn't speak about that ever again!"

"I know... It's just that I don't understand." He was using his own version of a puppy face, including a strong eyebrow game, and Stiles knew he wouldn't be able to avoid the subject.

"There's nothing to understand. I thought you were asking me to be your valentine and I was ready to say yes," Stiles stated, attempting to sound detached. He wasn't really successful. 

"But why? We're not even friends!" It stung and it was apparently obvious because Derek tried to explain himself. "It came out wrong, I mean..."

"Sorry to break it to you," Stiles interrupted. "But we are friends, sort of... We saved each other lives a few times, we trust each other – even if you won't admit it – and we're part of the same pack..."

"I'm not part of the pack." His voice was firm but his eyes were telling otherwise. 

"Duh! Of course you are!" Stiles assured him. "You're loyal to Scott and you're ready to sacrifice yourself to save us and our parents. Plus, you called me to help you... I really think we're friends."

"Then why do you ignore me most of the time?"

Stiles felt like this conversation was backfiring at him. "I have absolutly no idea what you're talking about!" 

Derek narrowed his eyes at him. There was no way he missed the skip in his heartbeat. Stiles was begining to feel very uncomfortable. 

"You know what I'm talking about. Since we came back from Mexico, you tried to avoid me at all cost and you're not really subtle." 

Stiles winced. He obviously couldn't lie to a werewolf, and he was tired of hiding what he felt. He faced Derek, took a deep breath and started to speak.

"I didn't want you to know that I was attracted to you..."

"Sorry to break it to you," Derek said, mockingly using Stiles's previous words. "But your scent was a pretty good indication."

"Not physically... Well, yes, I'm attracted to you in that way too. But what I mean is that I like you and I realized that I really cared about you when you were attacked by this berserker. I didn't want to leave you knowing that you could die, but you told me to go save Scott and..." Like everytime he tought about this moment, he had a lump in his throat. "After that, I saw how happy you were with Braeden so I kept my distances and I ended my relationship with..."

"Braeden is gone," Derek stated, interrupting him again.

"What?" 

"Braeden left the country two months ago. You would have known if you hadn't avoided me." Stiles didn't know what to say about that so he stayed silent. Derek was the one to speak again. "I still don't understand how you can like me, I've always been mean to you."

"You weren't mean to me, you were just as sarcastic as I am. And I know you care about me as a member of the pack. You helped everyone to save me from the nogitsune, you stood between me and the kanima before we ended up in the pool," Stiles rattled off. "And you care about people : you gave up your alpha power to save Cora, you protected Chris Argent against a bomb, you would give your life for Scott, you... umph!"

His speech was cut off by Derek's dry lips on his. He was too surprised to kiss back and Derek pulled back before he was even able to realise what was happening. 

"What was that for?" 

Derek was looking at his lap, his ears suddenly pink. 

"Hey no..." he whispered, placing his hand under Derek's chin to force him to raise his head. "I'm totally on board with that, you just took me by surprise."

He saw Derek approaching his hand before he felt it on his cheek, slowly sliding toward his neck, his thumb carressing his temple. He let his own hand travel from Derek's chin to his shoulder, encouraging him to close the distance between them. 

Their lips met again in a clumsy kiss. Derek tilted Stiles's head to his liking and everything seemed suddenly perfect. The teen placed his other hand on Derek's chest while the other man gripped his hip firmly. The kiss was slow and gentle, and they parted before any of them could deepen it. 

Stiles opened his eyes, realizing only then that he had closed them. Derek's cheeks were pink under his stubble and his lips were swollen from the kiss. He could guess his own were in the same state.

"I have to confess something..." Derek whispered, his breath carressing Stiles mouth. "I used research as a pretext to see you... I didn't want you to ignore me anymore." 

He ended his declaration with a soft peck on Stiles lips.

"Will you be my Valentine?" Stiles asked with a mischevious smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!  
> Constructive critism is highly appreciated.
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](http://aethelthryn.tumblr.com/)


End file.
